A Snapshot of the projects we are currently funding
Roslin Foundation Studentships
We are committed to inspiring promising young students to study in the field of biosciences as it relates to agriculture and biomedicine, and as such we have created a prestigious scholarship scheme in partnership with the Roslin Institute. Our Studentships run for 4 years in duration and include an enhanced stipend, consumables and travel allowance. These studentships are open to all staff on the Easter Bush campus but must contain at least 1 Roslin Institute staff member in the supervisory team.
The Foundation is currently funding 8 students:
- Tanmay Debnath: Disentangling the mammalian regulatory code using deep learning.
- Maia Beeson: Determining the potential of CpG enrichment as a live attenuated vaccine augmentation strategy for influenza A virus.
- Max Hateley: Mode of action of lymphostatin, a novel lymphocyte inhibitory factor of pathogenic Escherichia coli.
- Jefferson Ling: An in vitro organoid model for ‘leaky gut syndrome’
- Dinaer Yekefenhazi: Unravelling the genetic basis of tolerance to trypanosome infections in cattle.
- Louise Adamson: Investigating the formation and patterning of cartilaginous elements during vertebrate embryonic development.
- Tijesunimi Ojo: Breeding dairy cattle for increased resilience and health.
- Triza Tonui: Understanding host-pathogen interactions to develop improved vaccines against East Coast Fever (ECF).
Roslin Foundation Project Funding
To promote Scotland as a world leader in bioscience and encourage leading scientists in the field to come to us with innovative ideas we are excited to fund a research programme including such projects as:
BUILDING A REFERENCE QUALITY ANNOTATED GENOME ASSEMBLY FOR RED MAASAI SHEEP AS A RESOURCE TO UNDERSTAND COMPLEX TRAITS SUCH AS SUSCEPTIBILITY TO GI HELMINTH INFECTION.
In partnership with the Roslin Institute, the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) the Foundation is funding a project to generate a high quality reference genome for the Red Maasai sheep which will be used to support research. generated from the ILRI flock at Kapiti in Kenya. This will provide a resource to understand the genomic control of complex traits that pose significant barriers to productivity in small holder systems, such as susceptibility to disease and infection.
DEVELOPING GENOMIC BREEDING STRATEGIES FOR EAST-AFRICAN CROSS BRED DAIRY CATTLE
In partnership with the Roslin Institute, the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) the Foundation is funding a project to analyse the genomes of crossbreds and identifying the breed origin of different areas of the genome and their complete genomic history, enabling accurate genomic selection for these populations, bringing genetic gains such as increased productivity and resilience in low and middle-income countries.
The project will focus on sustainably improving the production of crossbred cattle for a range of East African smallholder dairy production systems. The methods developed in this project will enable breeders in Africa to perform genomic selection and planned mating of crossbred animals to ensure that genomic regions that control key traits are combined in the best way to meet the needs of farmers. By empowering the African dairy sector, this novel breeding strategy will sustainably transform tropical bovine dairy production and provide affordable, high-quality nutrition to a high and increasing proportion of the African population.
2023 Student Bios
Tanmay Debnath
Tanmay started out as a Mechanical Engineer as an undergrad at IIITDM Jabalpur, India and then went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. As an engineer, he is fascinated by modern technology, especially AI, which eventually led him to the Roslin Institute. His current PhD project involves working with the James Prendergast lab on developing AI models that can help us annotate livestock genomes better, without having to carry out large-scale sequencing experiments. It is titled: Disentangling the mammalian regulatory code using deep learning.
Maia Beeson
Maia grew up in Fife, Scotland and graduated with a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of St Andrews in 2023. She has always been interested in all things viral, so her current research project excites and inspires her every day. Her project looks into further elucidating the mechanisms of influenza A virus whilst determining the potential of CpG enrichment as a live attenuated vaccine augmentation strategy.
Max Hately
Max, originally from York, earned a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Cardiff University, where he developed an interest in bacterial pathogens and infectious diseases. After graduating in 2021, he worked on the Cardiff University WeWASH project, a wastewater-based epidemiology initiative monitoring SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic. In 2023, Max completed an MRes in Biosciences at Cardiff, focusing on assessing the ability of attaching and effacing enteric pathogens to subvert mitochondrial dynamics of host cells during infection. his project focuses on Mode of action of lymphostatin, a novel lymphocyte inhibitory factor of pathogenic Escherichia coli, where he aims to shed light on its molecular mechanisms and confirm lymphocyte inhibitory activity occurs in vivo.
Jefferson Ling
Jefferson completed a Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree at Newcastle University before pursuing a MRes in Drug Design at UCL. During his masters’ research project he found his love for studying host-pathogen interactions using 3D organoid models. After his masters, he worked as an advanced research assistant validating a human iPSC intestinal organoid model to investigate cholera toxin intoxication at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. His current PhD project involves developing an in vitro model of necrotic enteritis that will hopefully allow the testing of novel intervention strategies such as different feed additives in a high-throughput manner.
Dinaer Yekefenhazi
Dinaer obtained her bachelor’s degree from South-Central Minzu University, majoring in Information Management and Information Systems. During her master’s studies at Jimei University, she was introduced to bioinformatics and developed a strong interest in the field. After earning her master’s degree, she worked as a research assistant at Jimei University, where she continued expanding on her master’s project. During this time, she developed the idea of pursuing a PhD. Her current doctoral research focuses on unravelling the genetic basis of trypanosome infection tolerance in African cattle.
Louise Adamson
Louise earned a BSc Hons in Development, Regeneration and Stem cells from the University of Edinburgh in 2022, and an MScR in Clinical Veterinary Sciences the following year, where she worked on reprogramming stem cells from domestic animals. After her masters Louise worked at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative medicine in a group researching the development of human blood stem cells. Her interest in cell fate decisions lead her to undertake her current PhD project with Dr James Glover, where she is Investigating the formation and patterning of cartilaginous elements during vertebrate embryonic development.
Tijesunimi Ojo
Tijesunimi is from Nigeria and has a background in Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Nigeria. After her bachelor’s, she was awarded the Erasmus Mundus scholarship to pursue a joint master’s degree in animal Breeding and Genetics (EMABG) from Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands, and BOKU University, Vienna, Austria. Her research at WUR sparked an interest in the concept of ‘Breeding for Increased Resilience’. This interest was fuelled by the various challenges dairy cows face, including diseases, extreme weather conditions, limited resources, among others. These issues threaten the normal functioning of dairy cows over their lifetimes, and it is anticipated that they become more frequent and intense in the years ahead. She is a first-year PhD student at the Roslin Institute. Her PhD research project, ‘Breeding Dairy Cows for Increased Resilience and Health,’ under the supervision of Prof Andrea Doeschl-Wilson and Drs Martin Johnsson and Tomas Klingström from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and utilises automated data of cattle production, health and fertility records to develop novel resilience phenotype for breeding. “The project offers me an opportunity to continue making meaningful contributions to the rapidly growing field of resilience breeding. Through this work, I aim to achieve the global sustainability goal of developing highly productive dairy cows with improved resilience and health.”
Triza Tonui
Triza completed her bachelor’s degree in biomedical science before pursuing a Master’s in Molecular Biology at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Her master’s research focused on exploring gene expression profiles during the developmental stages of Theileria parva, the parasite responsible for East Coast Fever (ECF), a disease affecting cattle. Thereafter, she contributed to a collaborative research project involving Pennsylvania State University, the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology, and ILRI, which investigated the food safety implications of bushmeat consumption in the Serengeti and its surrounding ecosystems. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD at Roslin Institute under Dr Tim Connelley, focusing on Understanding host-pathogen interactions to develop improved vaccines against East Coast Fever (ECF).